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A Mississauga high school student has filed a complaint to Ontario’s human rights watchdog over what he considers systemic homophobia in his French Catholic school.

Christopher Karas, a Grade 12 student at École Secondaire Catholique Sainte-Famille, claims he has been repeatedly belittled by teachers and administration for being gay.

“I don’t want to see this happen to other students,” said Karas.

The school had not received notice of the complaint as of Wednesday, and its administration has not yet responded to the allegations of discrimination.

“It is therefore impossible to make any comment or to respond to questions from the media,” the school board wrote in a statement.

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The Star obtained a copy of Karas’ complaint, which was filed to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario last Thursday, and emailed the school’s administrators a detailed description of the claims.

Karas alleges the incidents began in Grade 10. During a school field trip to Ottawa a few boys complained to a teacher that they didn’t want to bunk with Karas because of his sexuality, according to the claim. The teacher immediately removed Karas and relocated him, Karas says.

Embarrassed, Karas says, he brought up the incident to the same teacher, who claimed “nothing further could be done,” according to the complaint.

In Grade 11, Karas claims, a religion teacher taught the class that “gay people should not be permitted to adopt.” In a psychology class about family structures, a different teacher said “homosexual couples are not recognized” as families under Catholic doctrine, Karas says.

In his final year, Karas says he was required to read Doric Germain’s Poison, which tells the tale of a family torn apart by alcoholism. In one passage, a father comes home drunk to find his son Patrick “pants down with another boy.”

The father lashes out and says, “I will not tolerate a f----t in my house.”

He then beats Patrick in a fit of rage, and “therefore transformed the f----t into a cripple,” the book says. The boy eventually devolves into a lifestyle of drugs.

Language aside, Karas took issue with his teacher’s reaction. There was no attempt to explain how the fictional beating was morally wrong, according to Karas.

“There were so many things in the book that were disgusting to me,” Karas said.

When the student complained to the vice-principal, Vicky Marcotte, about the themes in Poison, she said the school does not censor books, according to the complaint.

Karas’s claim indicates he suggested that the school add books with more gay-positive representations to supplement Poison. According to the claim, Marcotte told the student such literature would be outside school policies.

The school’s principal and vice-principal referred the the Star’s questions to the school board spokesperson on Wednesday.

While the human rights tribunal has yet to respond to the complaint, Karas’ lawyer is confident the case will be accepted.

“It clearly falls under the jurisdiction of the human rights tribunal,” said Jean-Alexandre De Bousquet.

If the complaint is deemed valid, a private mediation or public hearing could be held. If rejected, the tribunal will notify Karas that it is dismissing the case. It typically takes three weeks for the human rights office to assess a complaint and decide how it will proceed.

As remedy, Karas has asked for $25,000 compensation, a letter of apology and seven “public interest remedies,” including the removal of Poison from the curriculum, implementing gender-neutral washrooms and mandating sensitivity training for all teachers and students.

Problems between Karas and École Secondaire Catholique Sainte-Famille made news earlier this year after the student was prevented from putting up posters at the school featuring a Harvey Milk quote.

“All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential,” the quote read.

According to Karas, whose gay-friendly “Open Doors” group was behind the posters, the vice-principal asked that the word “sexual orientation” be changed to “self-expression” to be inclusive of non-LGBT students.

The school board later said the group’s student leaders, not administration, rejected the posters. It called the situation “a misunderstanding.”

The new complaint includes a letter of support signed by the student leaders, Karas says, that apparently shows the group’s unified support for the poster.

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